Northern Experience Wildlife Tours

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  • The delights of dusk

    There have been times, during the 3 and bit years of NEWT, when it’s almost seemed like working 9 to 5 (although with the difference that you never really know how any given day will turn out).  Gradually though we’re shifting to early starts or late finishes, and it’s really paying off for our clients.

    I collected Mike and Sue from their accommodation at The Swan, ready for an Otter Safari around Druridge Bay and Southeast Northumberland.  Clients who were both teachers in the area of North Lincolnshire, where I spent my childhood, showed once again, just what a small world it is.  After a few hours birdwatching around some of our most reliable otter sites, and dodging the rain showers, the evening developed into a stunning sunset.  As a group of ducks scattered into an almost perfect semicircle I concentrated on the centre of that circle…and an Otter surfaced exactly where I was looking.  After just a minute or so, it vanished into a reedbed….and we waited.  Sure enough, a second example of synchronised scattering indicated where it had re-emerged from the reeds.  Then we were treated to 20 minutes of madness as the otter raced across the water, porpoising and breaching!  All of this was set against a backdrop of clouds of Swifts, hawking insects above the water, slowly morphing, as Swifts gradually departed and denizens of the night appeared, into a cloud of Noctule and Common Pipistrelle Bats.  Almost perfect…

  • Like a different world

    I had 2 days in the North Pennines late last week; a one-to-one photography day and a birdwatching trip.  Separated by just 48hrs, the days could hardly have been any different.

    The photography day took place in gales that were so strong, I had to choose the direction of the car carefully when parked so that we could open the doors, and plan the route as we went along so that Michael would be in a position to get shots from his side of our mobile hide, with as little interference as possible from the weather.  As well as serving up Black Grouse, Red Grouse, Golden Plover, Curlew and Short-eared Owl I had a stint as photographer’s assistant, holding my Cubelite in place so that it acted as a diffuser and windshield as Michael enjoyed having some of the area’s flora in front of his macro lens.

    2 days later and I collected Mandy, Sara and Stevan from Jesmond and headed west again.  As we crossed the remote moorland roads and walked in Upper Teesdale, we found Snipe, Curlew, Meadow Pipit, Skylark and Wheatear all displaying.  We had excellent views of 2 Greyhens and a Blackcock was dozing in the afternoon sunshine.  Common Sandpipers were flitting about across the water and the Mountain Pansies were glorious in the sunlight.  All too soon, it was time to head back towards civilisation.

  • A gift from heaven

    I’ve always known that I tend to be very lucky when out with clients but last week, when we welcomed our first ever clients from Cyprus, that luck took an unexpected form.

    I collected Jane, Aristos, Eva and Nassos from Newcastle and we headed coastwards in the blazing sunshine.  Our birdwatching along Druridge Bay included what was, for our clients, a very welcome opportunity to get to grips with that difficult species pair of Common and Arctic Tern.  Reed, Sedge and Willow Warblers were all singing, Tufted Ducks and Gadwall were displaying and, as the afternoon progressed, it was time to focus on our two main targets for the day; Red Squirrel and Otter.

    Now, there are many ways that I’ve found Red Squirrels for our clients in the past…but being hit by flying squirrel poo was an entirely new one 🙂  Looking from the squishy mass on the back of my hand up into the trees I could see the waving orange tail of our quarry.  Eventually it came down the tree, raced up and down a few trunks and leapt from canopy to canopy before launching itself to the ground and out of sight.

    When your luck’s in, it’s in…and, as sunset approached and I commented about the state of alert of the ducks and geese, Jane spotted an Otter.  For 35 mins everyone sat mesmerised as it twisted and turned in the water, catching fish with almost every dive and munching away at the surface before sliding under the water again and eventually out of sight.

    With sightings like these, it’s no surprise that we’re getting booked up rapidly for the next few months.  Give us a call on 01670 827465, and join us on a search for Northumberland’s wildlife.

  • Juggling act

    We’ve just finished what has almost certainly been our hardest week since we started NEWT; organising and guiding a 7-night Northumberland birdwatching holiday for no less than 18 clients.

    The Bamburgh Castle Inn was our accommodation base for the week and the upstairs conservatory, with it’s excellent views over the harbour, Farne Islands and Bamburgh Castle, was reserved for our dinner each night of the holiday.  Many, many thanks to Sean and his team for the entire week 🙂

    The unseasonal high winds weren’t going to get the better of us, and our original itinerary for the week was shuffled/re-jigged/abandoned as we took some calculated risks to ensure that our planned boat trips to the Farne Islands and Coquet Island both went ahead.  They did, and we’re eternally grateful to Billy Shiel’s Farne Island Boat Trips and Dave Gray’s Puffin Cruises for the incredibly professional way that they handled our clients.

    I asked the group for their highlight of the week…and got a lot of answers; A mixed flock of waders, resplendent in breeding plumage, along the coastline of Druridge Bay.  An Otter, lazily fishing in a coastal pool. Sailing around Coquet Island as the sky darkened and all of the terns flushed from the island when the RSPB warden walked up the slipway.  A pair of very pink Roseate Terns mating.  Walking through the dunes at Newton in the howling gales of Monday afternoon.  Staple Island and Inner Farne.  Red Grouse wandering through the heather on our day in the Cheviots.

    All too soon, the week was over and I led a brief foray into the North Pennines for a few of the group as they headed south.  There, in the driving rain and howling gale, a Black Grouse sat hunched in the bracken – looking even more annoyed than they usually do 🙂

    The week wouldn’t have run so well without the quality of service from all of the other companies we worked with, but I want to say a massive thank you to Sarah.  Client care, liaison with suppliers, running the NEWT office for the week and realising what I was going to ask before I had even asked it were all taken in her stride and made the week work.  Thank You 🙂

    We’re already dealing with enquiries for group holidays in May 2012, so get in touch to find out what we can offer you and your group; whatever time of the year, whatever the size of your group…

  • Border patrol

    After a day on the coast, yesterday brought something completely different as I headed towards Whitelee Farm and Byrness to collect John and Natalie, and then Bert, for a Kielder Safari.

    As we drove along a remote track through the forest, we came across some of the wildlife that makes Kielder such a special place; Roe Deer trotted across the track ahead of us, family parties of Common Crossbills were adorning the tops of spuce trees like christmas decorations, a Red Squirrel eyeballed us from halfway up a tree, a Common Buzzard tolerated a closer approach than usual, but not for long,  and a pair of Wheatears watched as we passed by.

    North of the border we were entertained by several pairs of Whinchat (surely one of the most attractive birds we have in Britain), including a male who started singing from his perch just a few metres away, a Dipper that was whizzing up and down the stream where we sat to have our lunch, a Red Grouse playing hide-and-seek with us in the heather and the elegant beauty of a male Hen Harrier, still retaining his grace as he battled into the howling gale that made our hot soup at lunchtime all the better.

    Whether it’s the remoteness, the landscape, the species that you rarely, if ever, find elsewhere or just the lack of other people; our inland locations – Kielder, the Cheviot Valleys and the North Pennines always produce memorable birdwatching experiences, for our clients and for ourselves as well!

  • Putting in the effort

    Early afternoon on Tuesday I collected Julian and Andrew from their accommodation at The Swan for an afternoon of birdwatching and general natural history in Druridge Bay and southeast Northumberland.  After a busy afternoon that produced sightings of Barn Owl (an incredibly obliging bird that we watched hunting for nearly 20minutes), 4 Brown Hares and a Temminck’s Stint amongst a myriad of other birds, flowers and wildlife we headed towards a small pond, dusk, destiny and a date with that elusive predator…

    With an 80% success rate searching for Otters since early April (in 4 trips with clients, one trip for the NEWT guides) I was fairly confident…then it got darker, and darker, and darker…and still no sign.  A chance break in the clouds reflected in the water surface and visibility improved for a few moments.  I’d been concentrating on a pair of the oft-derided Canada Geese for a few minutes, because they were standing very alert, when they began cackling.  A quick scan along the water’s edge…and was that an otter, distantly in the gloom?  or were my eyes playing those tricks that you often have in the last light of the day?  As it surfaced again, before swimming right by, I reflected on the effort that we’d all been putting in, in the failing light, and the reward for that effort as it’s final act before vanishing into the darkness of a reedbed was to feed just a few metres away, with it’s tail waggling about above the water.

  • Making the best of the weather

    We put a lot of effort into finding locations for species that our clients are keen to photograph and we can apply decades of experience and fieldcraft…but we can’t control the weather.  As we left the lowland coastal strip of Northumberland on Sunday, gaining altitude in a search for Black Grouse at some of our favoured spots in the North Pennines, the rain started to patter on the car windows.  As the wind strengthened, and the pattering turned to a shower, this added another factor to our considerations; 1) find birds, 2) position vehicle so that a) client has a clear shot and b) lighting angle is good, were joined by c) rain isn’t drenching client 🙂  With all of those achieved it just remained for Arthur to fill his memory cards with those species that the North Pennines produces such close views of; Black Grouse, Red Grouse (with chicks), Curlew, Common Snipe, Lapwing, Golden Plover (with chicks) and Short-eared Owl being the stars of the day.  As we drove a steep remote road towards Weardale we even had excellent, and close, views of the often elusive Greyhen, and throughout the day we found several groups of Blackcock (including 7 in one field).  To be honest, if we could control the weather…I’m not sure we would 😉

  • Cold as ice…then a little ‘otter

    On Tuesday I had a very enjoyable evening at Doxford Hall; meeting a group of tourism and trade delegates from Iceland and talking to them about ‘best practice’ in wildlife tourism.  Cold, northern countries have always appealed to me (one factor in my decision to leave Arizona in May 2000 was the daytime temperature), so it was fascinating to listen to the group describing how wildlife tourism in Iceland is developing.  That we were able to do this over dinner (which was excellent) made it a fairly informal Q&A, with lots of ideas shared and explored about the development of wildlife holidays, client requirements, the importance of local knowledge, the benefits of networking and the effects of the global financial crisis.

    Another enjoyable part of the evening was the chance to catch up with David Hunter again.  I first met David just after we launched NEWT, when he was still at Matfen Hall and I went along to tell him what we were doing.  At that time we were a fledgling business and didn’t have any real idea where it would go, or how it could develop.  Three years down the line, and we’ve got a better idea (to the point where I’m invited to describe best practice to overseas delegates), although there’s a lot of development still to come!  With David now running Doxford Hall it will surely continue developing into an outstanding venue, and we’re looking forward to working with him in the future.

    Yesterday evening was a more typical one for myself and Sarah; scattering Coots, nervous geese, a hissing Mute Swan and the familiar, sinuous, twisting, turning and swirling of an Otter feeding in front of us.

  • Sights and sounds; North Pennines 10/05/2011

    With a run of 3 North Pennines trips in 6 days, I’m going to be seeing a lot of what is rapidly becoming my favourite birdwatching location (outside of the Northumberland coast in mid-October of course…).

    05:30 and the incessant ringing of the alarm clock lets me know that it’s time to be up and about.  Within an hour I’m on my way to Hebburn and then heading west with Kathleen and Brian, 2 of our Prestige Clients, in the car.

    The elements aren’t playing fair; a biting cold wind just adds to the ‘feel’ of the North Pennines, but even the stinging raindrops don’t dampen the enthusiasm.  An imperious Blackcock, taking shelter from the wind behind a dry stone wall, allows a prolonged view (we weren’t to know that he was the first of no less than 21 Black Grouse that we were going to enjoy, including 7 birds lekking as we had our lunch).  Red Grouse popped up like Meerkats from the heather as we passed, Lapwing, Curlew and Snipe were all calling over their territories, Skylarks were singing a song that was carried far on the wind and a Golden Plover called plaintively as its little shockingly yellow chicks bobbed up and down around it.  A Stoat dashing across the road in front of us, quickly vanished into the heather; the predator’s route signposted by the string of Meadow Pipits flushing as it passed.

    One down, two to go…and I might go there early on Thursday myself when I’m in the area for a Northern Experience Holidays business meeting.  Addicted?

  • Otter madness

    The sun is setting, adding a rim of burning gold to the edges of the steel grey clouds drifting across the horizon.  A pool of carmine encircles the darkness, illuminating the clouds in front of us and reflected in the water as baby pink.  Then it happens, the cherry on the icing on the (60th birthday) cake.  Enter stage right…the menacing sleek form of an Otter.  For 40 minutes we’re entertained as this sinuous predator treats the tree stumps, islands, boulders and the water as an obstacle course.  I’ve seen lots of Otters feeding, I’ve seen them scrambling over boulders, and I’ve seen them climbing trees.  Until yesterday though I’d never seen one persistently breaching; changing direction with breathtaking speed so that it was a struggle to be sure that we were only watching one animal.

    A client once asked whether I would become blase about the wildlife that we see…